Kingdom Hearts 1.6 - A Year of Misery
"What mattered the most was remembered the least." :—Tagline Kingdom Hearts 1.6 - A Year of Misery is the fifth installment in the Kingdom Hearts Unlimited ''saga. It focuses on the so-called Incorporeo of Taran, Wart, and his faithful companion Miklos Mouse, set between the end of ''The Journey and the beginning of An Empire of Dreams, exploring the time from Arthur's rebirth until his confrontation with Ellidyr that leads to his placement in the care of Sir Ector and Sir Kay. Meanwhile, a new cadre of villains is plotting to use the Dark-hearts to conquer all worlds, intending to kidnap the 10 Princesses of Heart once more, but they will fail due to the efforts of Dominion XIII not wanting their plans of completing Kingdom Hearts to be hampered by the loss of those who they need to complete the Christ-Blade's light half with down the line. Story Our story begins at what is frankly the lowest point in Taran's life, having sacrificed his soul to reawaken Princess Eilonwy from the Sleeping Death curse and complete the Keyhole to the Forbidden Mountains, thereby unwittingly fulfilling the Horned King's plan to become a god among mortal men. At the same time, while his heart is trapped in the form of a pathetic little Shadow Bug, his separated body has been taken over by another heart and transformed into a replica of that heart's original owner. Thus is born the amnesiac child Wart, cold, naked, and alone within the burning ruins of the ancient planet of Mustafar. However, he is not alone for long as Zurg, the mighty emperor of the terrorist cult Dominion XIII, finds and rescues the lad from certain oblivion, taking him into his organization as its 13th member in exchange for his cooperation. Unaware of the world around him due to what little memories he has inherited from Taran before the Keybearer was restored to a semblance of normalcy, Wart is commanded by the Emperor and his generals to lead secret invasions upon the worlds, sending hordes of Darkhearts to terrorize the populace for their heart-souls, only to swoop in and save the day by using his Keyblade to slay the monsters, and in exchange for his continued protection, he is to persuade the civilians into offering their worship and rule over to Dominion XIII. There is also a second point to the infiltration-protection rackets; normally with every Darkheart destroyed by Wart's keyblade, its captive heartsoul would be free to ascend to the true Kingdom Hearts of Heaven in the afterlife. However, because that specific Keyblade has been enchanted by Zurg's dark magic, the hearts will instead be compelled to merge together at a specific gathering point to create an artificial Kingdom Hearts, namely the Moon of Lost Souls, which the Dominion XIII intends to use to call forth the Moon's namesake's primordial power and become gods to rule over the universe. To ensure his continued success and eventual evolution into a normal functioning member of their society, Zurg leaves Wart in the care of his personal assassin Ben Ali Gator, to which the two eventually befriend one another and spend their time hiding in the seediest or scenically isolated parts of the worlds, speaking what's on their minds and eating treats swiped from the backdoor pantries. Shortly after Wart's induction to the organization, Zurg surprises the members by introducing a pair of mysterious individuals to join the Dominion; a large, massive android named Ultron, and a girl about Wart's age named Morgause. The two are specifically assigned to assist Wart on his missions for a purpose as of yet unknown, though what it is he will not say. Later, when Ben Ali and several of the Dominion's lesser echelon agents are assigned to Castle Memoria/Oblivion for another of Zurg's plans, Wart finds himself alone with no one to talk to but the taciturn Morgause and the stoically focused Ultron. Nonetheless, Wart slowly begins to bond with Morgause throughout their missions, causing her to open up her true demeanor, even to the point of finally revealing her face to Wart and demonstrating the full capacity of her ability to wield another of the enchanted Keyblades. Unfortunately, while on a mission with the bounty hunter Boba Fett to quell an insurrection by the sorcerer Merlock in the deserts of Duckburg, Wart ends up falling into a deep sleep by no fault of his own, coinciding with the point that Taran has also put himself under the Sleeping Curse to restore his lost memories during his adventure in Castle Oblivion. This results in the production line of missions slowing to a crawl, much to the dismay of Zurg and his secret adviser the Wiseman, as they fear if he never awakens, then their plans for world domination will fail. Thankfully for them, Wart is able to awaken some weeks later, though he finds due to the reports of the surviving Storm troopers that most, if not all of the members sent to the Castle Oblivion have either defected or been destroyed. Ben Ali is at first listed among the deceased before he turns up alive about a week later. Shaken by the experience and fearing for all of their mortal lives for what little time they have left on this life, Wart begins suggesting that he, Ben Ali, Morgause, and Ultron all spend time together after their missions in order to live their lives to the fullest and become true friends, which ultimately does end up happening, even Ultron continues to act distant towards his newfound "friends". However, Wart begins increasingly experiencing Taran's memories and grows frustrated when his questions about them go unanswered, becoming increasingly curious about his connection to Taran, why he wields the Keyblade, and of the Dominion's true motives. Meanwhile, there is dissension going on in the shadows, as Merlock has in fact allied himself with the last remaining original generals of the late Maleficent's ruined empire in order to revitalize the Hellfire Organization and restore their rule over the universe as they had for over 10 years, seeing the Dominion XIII as the greatest threat to their plans. On the other side of the moral conflict, Saruman the White, Guinevere, and their secret cabal of supporters have organized the subtle moving of Taran's coffin from Castle Oblivion to the basement of an abandoned mansion on the outskirts of Sunset Horizons, all the better to continue monitoring the restoration of his memories to their original state. However, something is interfering with the process, and Saruman orders his newest warrior, Ellidyr, to figure out the source of the memory disturbance, leading the now disguised fallen warrior into a confrontation with Morgause atop the tallest mountain where the lights touch the earth. In their battle, Ellidyr brings Morgause's identity and the authenticity of her Keyblade into question and suggests she leave the Dominion's ranks to merge with her original self and be whole again. Morgause, however, is torn between doing so, effectively committing suicide on her existence, and staying with Wart and Ben Ali. Unfortunately, the truth may be harder to bear than she realized, as Morgause soon discovers that while at one point long ago her Silver Millennium incarnation was a lady-in-waiting to Princess Ariel, in modern times she has only been recreated as a living aberration, the body her heart inhabits being an imperfected replica of Taran made with the exact same cybernetics as Ultron, and powered by the Keybearer's leaking memory energy. Morgause also ends up discovering that she and Ultron were created by the now deceased Doctors Frankenollie and Gero for the sole purpose of merging together into a singular entity, absorbing Wart's life essence, and becoming Zurg's ultimate weapon for forging his Moon of Lost Souls in the event should Taran prove himself useless to the Dominion's plans. What's more is that while Morgause's appearance is due to Taran's strong memories of Eilonwy coinciding with her LoL incarnation's heart, Guinevere's attempts at restoring his memories are slowly but surely causing Morgause to mutate into a twisted mechanical hybrid between her true appearance and Taran. Horrified by the news of her very existence being a total sham, Morgause begins to doubt if she was truly ever meant to exist, fleeing from the Dominion's Castle to find her own path in life, while inadvertently causing a rift between herself and her friends. Ultron all the while takes in this knowledge with mere acceptance at first glance, but it is clear that his intended mission has begun to twist and distort his way of thinking, causing him to grow a bit more erratic in his missions. Now there is a bit of a power struggle as both Zurg and the alliance between Merlock, Hades, and Pete send their forces across the worlds to find and capture the runaway Morgause so that they may use her for their respective plans. Morgause is eventually located in the abandoned warehouse where Bill Sykes once conducted his business, and both Warp Darkmatter and Ben Ali are sent to head her off, though she is able to utilize her compostion's abilities to momentarily disorient Warp with illusions before knocking him out. Because Ben Ali never realized Morgause's true self until now, he can't help but question his former friend on what has become of her, and sadly she must come clean about the whole truth before fleeing once more. When Ben tries to tell Wart about Morgause, the boy refuses to believe the truth and accuses his friend of lying, before leaving to resume his missions. However, over the next few days Wart begins to seriously consider what Ben had told him, and of his further unanswered questions. Realizing that he has become little more than a pawn in the Dominion's plans, Wart decides to grow a backbone and leaves the terrorist organization of his own volition in order to find Morgause, patch things up with her, and together with her by his side, discover who he truly is in order to live his life his own way. When Ben finds out about Wart's decision, he tries to dissuade the lad from going through with his actions, warning him that Dominion XIII will never stop until he has either been forcibly brought back to their fold or been destroyed for resisting, though much to his chagrin, Wart blows him off and continues on his mission to find Morgause and the answer to his identity. Unfortunately, Wart does not have long to find Morgause, as she has already been captured and forcibly absorbed by a now maddened Ultron, who also has turned rogue from the Dominion, intending to do the same to Wart in order to become perfect and bring true peace in our time...which involves the complete and utter destruction of all organic, mortal life so that he can reshape the universe in his own twisted image. The clinker in Ultron's mad scheme is that by absorbing both Morgause and Wart, Taran will never be able to awaken from the sleeping death, which Morgause can not stand by and let happen. She tries resuming control over Ultron's merged form in order to urge Wart to stop the android and save her from this tormented existence, but Wart argues that if he killed Ultron, then Morgause will die with him, to which Morgause stated that she's not afraid of that implication...not anymore. To make a long story short, Wart is able to destroy Ultron after a long battle, but at the cost of Morgause's life, and as she begins to crystallize into shards of light, she begs her dearest friend to set the souls of the Dominion's countless victims free and stop the Wiseman's plan, no matter the cost. All the while, Wart desperately shrieks at Morgause to stay with him, crying out over all the good times they shared together, all the plans they had hoped to accomplish in their bright and happy future, but it is too late. Morgause has died peacefully in Wart's arms, and her lifeforce and stolen memories are split and absorbed between Taran and Wart. All that remains of her is a single thalassa shell from the sandy coast of Prydain, a remnant of her desire to one day show Wart in their spare time from work, but now will never come to pass. With tears streaming down his stone-cold face, Wart vows to avenge the death of his friend and begins marching back to Imperial Coruscant to personally slit Zurg's corrupt throat with his newly-gained two Keyblades of Oblivion and Renewal. With Morgause's death, Pete sees this as an opportunity to strike down the Dominion in their moment of weakness and conquer the universe himself, sending hordes of his most powerful demon warriors to storm the streets of Galactic Central, sending all of Coruscant's populace in a terrified frenzy, fleeing for their lives. Wart's return to the city square does not change his emotions one bit as he simply cuts down the monstrous invaders with malice and contempt burning in his empty heart. A storm begins to rage across the heavens as Ellidyr, himself already being given an ultimatum to bring back Wart to Saruman lest he fail everyone for the last time, confronts Wart, and a furious duel ignites between the two, each one desperate to win in order to return their lives back to the way they want them to be. In the end, it looks as though Wart will be the victor of the brutal fight, but Ellidyr is that desperate to not fail Taran, never again. With a reluctant heart, he allows the Venom Symbiote he had stashed away to envelop his being, transforming him into a monstrous undead lich, almost similar in appearance to the Horned King and yet not quite the same, and in return granting him the power he needs to subdue Wart and put an end to his resistance. Alas, the cost of Ellidyr's transformation has permanently bonded the symbiote to his body, meaning he will never again be able to revert back to his true self unless his curse is broken by an act of true love from one who cares about him in return. But if it means Taran will be allowed to be fully restored and reunited with Princess Eilonwy, then Ellidyr is willing to accept his fate, seeing it as justified punishment for all the sins he committed under Maleficent's guidance. Ellidyr thus brings the now unconscious Wart to Saruman, who casts a spell over the boy's mind to strip him of his memories of all the time he spent in Dominion XIII to make him easier to mold under his guidance, then promptly hands him over to Sir Ector and Sir Kay in the Castle Sauvage estate for them to watch over the boy until the time is right for Taran to awaken once more. In the morning, a now amnesiac Wart awakens to find himself in a bed of straw, and is promptly greeted by Sir Ector, who is quick to fill in the boy's newly written false backstory and send him off to meet with a couple of boys outside who are very eager to meet this sheltered child for the first time. Wart does not question any of this due to the spell cast over him, only wondering if maybe he'll be able to go out somewhere fun with the other kids, perhaps even...a beach?, leading to the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II - An Empire of Dreams. (Post-Credits sequences: Zurg calming the people of Coruscant down about the incident last night, before privately telling Asajj Ventress that with Morgause gone, now their primary objective is to recover Wart at any costs; Pete beginning his plan as seen in Mysterious Tower, Taran slowly beginning to stir in his memory coffin, Eilonwy wistfully looking into the distance from the castle balcony for Taran's safe return, each of the main Princesses of Heart and the Guardians suddenly feeling a sense of deja vu and looking into the sunset wondering what could they be missing; and Morgause's ending monologue to Wart from inside his soul) Worlds and Characters Category:Fanfictions